God of War PC review | PC Gamer - kaczorputer1980

Our Verdict

The C. H. Best game on PS4 is now one of the outdo games on PC.

PC Gamer Verdict

The best game on PS4 is now one of the best games on Microcomputer.

Need to acknowledge

What is it? An action RPG family roadtrip
Expect to salary $50/£40
Developer Sony Santa Monica
Publisher PlayStation PC
Reviewed on RTX 3060, Ryzen 7 5700G 3.8Ghz, 16GB RAM
Multiplayer? No
Link Official site

God of War is a PC game. That still felt weird to say as I attentive up my second playthrough over the holidays. Not far above it connected my Steam library sits another game that is "of War" for a different master—Gears 5. Just a few years ago, these two tentpole serial existing on the same device was out of the question. Now they part a virtual ledge.

Sony's latest angry pa game is evidence that the PC is the ultimate videogame unifier, and a dandy reminder of how the program can bring out the superfine in games. I've killed my way across Midgard at 30 FPS on a PS4 and 4K on PS5, but I don't think I can go back to either subsequently 24 hours of buttery smooth monster chopping at 90+ fps. This is a damn genuine port, leastways happening my higher-end Microcomputer.

If you skipped Idol of Warfare 2018 or seaport't touched the series at whol, this is the War god to period of play. All you need to know leaving in is that Kratos was Athena's uncomparable murder man until he was betrayed and decided to kill all of the gods (including his papa, Zeus). This soft reboot picks up years later. Therein time, Kratos unexhausted a now-godless Greece and wandered into the Norse lands, where atomic number 2 gained a married woman (who has just passed away at the start of the game), a son named Atreus, and a glorious whiskers.

Kin matters

Supreme Being of War is its restraint. It's a decreased story in a earthly concern of gigantic characters. Kratos and Atreus aren't out to save the world—they just want to spread their wife/mother's ashes on a grownup scads. They'atomic number 75 non looking for a conflict, but finish up walking into a bunch of them because, apparently, Midgard has been a nightmare land of evil trolls, poison witches, and zombies for the lastly century OR so. Much of the game is basically carving a path done this broken humankind, unraveling the picayune god drama that led to its ruin.

On that point's a lot of The Last of United States and Unknown in its puzzly moments—hoisting young Atreus upwards a ledge to bang pull down a Mexican valium and jostling dilapidated supports to cook a bridge are pages straight unstylish of the Gamy Dog playbook—just these familiar puzzles get to have a good deal of fun with Kratos' superhuman strength.

My strongest memories completely revolve around one of the greatest weapons in videogames: the Leviathan Ax.

It's both cool and funny how often Atreus ponders how they're going to ill-tempered a gap just as Kratos lifts a radio beam the size of six cars or spins an smooth building like IT's a windup toy. Where Nathan Sir Francis Drake looks for a Sir Ernst Boris Chain to lift an ancient block, Kratos simply throws his ax at the gears so calculative that they spin. For a character that wont to mostly show his toughness past killing every animate thing in the room, it's nice to picture Kratos throw his weight more or less the world itself.

Lifting big rocks wouldn't exist near as merriment without the back and forward banter with Atreus (or every bit he's frequently called, "boy"). It's not on the dot a parvenue communicative trick to span a strong silent typecast with an inquisitive nipper, but unlike the developing human relationship of Joel and Ellie, Atreus and Kratos already have a layered rapport that's steadily in the altogether hinder over time. Information technology's provable from the leap out that the two aren't close. Atreus is determined to prove he's ready to make the travel and pressured to liveborn up to Kratos' high standards ("Fare non personify sorry. Constitute better," Kratos tells him afterward taking a careless shot at a cervid). Kratos, in the meantime, is an emotionally extreme bring forth who projects his own issues on other masses.

Their relationship evolves organically every bit they take happening the world together, simply Sony Santa Monica was overbold to let side characters do some heavy lifting A well. One character introduced intermediate through is easily the best component of the game, a wise old grandpa physical body brimfull with useful advice and stories to fill the insensitive air while the trine boat around Midgard.

God brawls

For as saintly as War god's characters and stories are, my strongest memories all circle round one of the greatest weapons in videogames: the Leviathan Axe. The ax is your primary feather weapon and coif-it-all multitool throughout the stallion courageous. It can pry open doors, destroy obstacles, halt machinery in situ, or represent thrown and twisted the length of a football field to nab vexed-to-reach loot. In combat, the Leviathan is a gratifying correspondence of heft and upper that hits a lot harder than Kratos' old Blades of Chaos. Hera, once again, Sony Santa Monica leverages Kratos' elfin mightiness to let you do unimaginable things with an axe, like cleave three enemies in half with a separate move.

Then there's the Leviathan's strange perk. You've probably seen cool gifs of Kratos throwing the ax at a draugr and recalling it back to his hand like Thor's Mjölnir hammer. It feels even as cool as it looks and doesn't check beingness cool for slews of hours. Ax combat translates surprisingly well to keyboard and mouse, as well: near and correct mouse are measure attacks and you have to hold Ctrl to ready a drop. IT was a good polarity for God of War's default keybindings when I instinctually named back the axe aside urgent the standard R reload key and information technology totally worked. That said, reaching for Ctrl mightiness get along a pain in the neck afterwards a while if you don't have pinkies of steel.

You can chuck the axe like a backfire for a quick attack that bounces off enemies operating room thrust it overhead for a harder hit that sticks and freezes them in place. IT oftentimes made sense for me to leave of absence that pinned enemy in place, because axe-less Kratos rump tranquilize fight with his 2 substantive fists.

god of war — Hello, giant world serpent. Loving the seaweed beard. (Image credit: Sony)

Because nothing in God of State of war goes to waste, unarmed combat is an entirely different beast with its own skill tree and advantages. Blunt blows don't deal as often damage as the axe, but they do fill enemy stagger meters super winged. Once fully staggered, Kratos can sealskin the deal with an twinkling performance straight out of Doomguy's program library of glory kills. These spectacle kills are so satisfying that I was constantly looking for an exempt to fall back the axe and go full boxer. Funding up Kratos at wholly times is Atreus, who has a dedicated button to command him to shoot arrows at whoever you're targeting.

This along-the-fly weapon swapping creates fun improvisational brawls that congratulate every fighting stylus. I can keep spamming light attack, or I could go full galaxy brain aside pinning the biggest guy rope in place with the axe, beating fodder zombies to a pulp, and recalling the axe at retributory the true angle to slice through with an enemy on the way of life back. When the stars align, I'm chaining moves in a literal combat loop. Everything matters at the said clock time, even if I could one-trick with the ax through most of the game.

You take much cool stuff equally the story progresses that you're best off seeing yourself, so much that I was a little overwhelmed by choice in the back half of the game. I tested conniving to make the well-nig extinct of every awesome path I possess to kill stuff and all the same Atreus would still berate me for not asking him to shoot arrows enough. I'm compassionate kid, I fair get carried away with ax headshots and forget about your wimpy arrows sometimes.

Functioning

Nvidia's upscaling tech has gotten so favourable I'm not sure why you'd e'er flip IT off when it's available.

My endorsement War god playthrough was my second-best playthrough, and it had everything to do with the higher framerate I enjoyed with this PC port. Like Days Absent and Horizon: Zero Dawn before it, God of State of war flies on a good PC. On an RTX 3060 at 1920x1080, I was able to crank the target fps to 90 and mostly stay there with Nvidia DLSS down to Choice. I noticed things got a little choppier during room access transitions to the open-world lake area, but the frames would steady-going afterwards a while.

God of War also runs fine without DLSS, though at this tip, Nvidia's upscaling tech has gotten so skillful I'm non sure why you'd always flip information technology turned when information technology's available. Runty issues that troubled earlier versions of DLSS (like that weird ghosting effect you'd see happening the miniature vagrant particles) are clean up nowadays, and what's left is an AI-assisted upscaled visualise that I can hardly discern from a native 1080p image. The magic flim-flam may be a lilliputian fewer convincing if you scale it down to Balanced or Ultra Carrying out, simply Quality is a unadventurous count for 1080p gaming. As for 1440p Oregon 4K, I'm unfortunately unequipped to give it a go.

DLSS International Relations and Security Network't the alone flavor Oregon upscaling buttressed by War god, either. You can alternatively flip on AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution. I put on't possess as a great deal experience with this ace, simply I noticed a trifle more blurriness when set to quality. It's still best, and as a frame-hungry PC gamer, I'd keep it happening if it was my only choice.

I also fiddled with separate graphics options here and there, of which God of War has several just not everything you could ask for, though I was satisfied with the game's needle-shaped presets. The game defaults to the interrogatively named "Original" preset (which I assume means the original PS4 look). I played mostly along Original and it looked great throughout, but I did notice sharper textures and post-processing on Squeaky and Ultra. My Kratos looks so good I can just roughly extend and touch his wrinkly face.

Information technology's exciting to think of what God of War's landing on PC could mean for the console exclusive position quo. Sony has a dedicated PC publishing label like a sho. As the accompany gets more serious about PC ports, wish we ever get to the point where its games bring out happening PC months after launch instead of old age? Could it even pull a Microsoft and pretermit everything connected Microcomputer at the same sentence as console?

That's probably a stretch, but God of War is a positive sign. The unsurpassable game on the PS4 is now one and only of the best games on PC.

I was one of those people that scoffed at Dad of War when it was announced. I thought we were getting The Last of Us with an ax, simply instead, we got a fully-fledged RPG with tiered loot and skill trees expertly weaved into a story about power, violence, and counterfeit parents. It's an fulgurant difference from the edgy thrashing fest that this series used to be and a necessary change if it was loss to come back up at every. The heaps of money, gift, and time it took to reboot this 2000s relic into something worth existent today is evident in every minute. Four years later, God of War is still a triumph.

War god

The superfine game on PS4 is now one of the best games on PC.

Morgan has been piece of writing for PC Gamer since 2018, inaugural American Samoa a freelancer and currently equally a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygonal shape, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. In front freelancing, he spent most of upper school day and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a genuine job now. Thomas Hunt Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news show, reviews, features, the episodic guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his subdivision, and he'll regular write about a dull scheme game. Please father't, though.